Niels Prip – Blog

Henri Nouwen in his book, The Way of the Heart, says “Solitude is the furnace of transformation”. I often look forward to finding a time to be quiet with my Bible, away from the noise of the world and even the noise of church. As Psalm 55 says, ”Oh that I had wings like a dove, I would fly away and find rest”. As we read the New Testament, we are told in many places about Jesus going off into the wilderness to pray and be alone.

Our current culture is on overload, smart phones, endless visual stimulation, endless music-even in the church. We are hardly ever just quiet, everywhere you go, everyone is glued to their smart phone. I have often said, what if we came to church and didn’t ask God for anything? What if we just waited on Him? That will not fly in most churches today since the program must go on.

Psalm 130 says, “I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in his word do I hope. I wait for the Lord, more than the watchman for the morning, more than the watchman for the morning”. Isa 40 says “But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint”. There is a rest that we can enter in to as we wait for the Lord. I for one, need that rest. It is important for me to find that place of rest, that place of refuge that God has for those who wait upon Him. Oh that sweet place of rest, where God speaks quietly to our hearts.

I remember years ago moving to Pensacola, coming to the Brownsville Revival. There was many a night that I had to leave the revival meeting so I could go and find a quiet place to find the Lord. Revival was exciting and loud but left me empty in many ways. At that time my greatest need was Jesus, and I found myself needing to get away from the noise and the hype. I just need to be quiet and wait on the Lord, it was the only place that I found the strength to carry on. There is a thing call “social exhaustion”, we have to guard against it. We have to escape to a quiet place; we have to wait for the Lord.